Initial Impulse
by TinyPalm
Summary: New project! My own version of a prequel. Ever wondered how GirlDeMo was established as a diversion unit for the battlefront? Or about the past of mysterious members like Shiina? Find out here! Rated T to be safe.
1. Prologue

**A/N:**

**Hiya! Welcome to my second AB! project! This is my own version of a prequel - Initial Impulse. I finished Track Zero a while ago, and to be honest, I wasn't too satisfied with it. I liked it, don't get me wrong, but I can't help but feel Maeda-sama could have done more with the story (since the anime is so good and all).**

**Well, enough babbling ;) Hope you enjoy the story! **

* * *

Prologue

The two of them stood in the rain, guns aligned perfectly with their respective targets.

They kept the distance between them. Yuri was standing next to an unconscious Noda strewn across the tiled floor, now soiled by the heavy rain. Her eyes narrowed as she thought of the other members of her team stationed in other parts of the school cafeteria. She had no doubt they had suffered the same fate, their 'bodies' now affected by the toxin as they lay unconscious.

On the other side, Iwasawa was standing protectively over Hisako's body, the latter lying soaked in the crimson of her own blood. For the first time in a very long time, Iwasawa couldn't stay the cool and collected character she was. Instead, she was really having trouble quelling the slowly rising, burning rage inside her as she stared down her enemy.

And then, in the darkness of the cafeteria rooftop, a gunshot rang out.


	2. 1 When the 'normal' seems abnormal

Chapter 1 – When the 'normal' seems abnormal

**[School Building A: Corridor]**

_This place is freaking huge… _Yuri Nakamura thought as she made her way to the third floor.

Most of the 'students' here had probably returned to their dorms. Classes were already over for the day, after all. Yuri was among the few that still had business here. But while other students stayed for club activities and after-school duties, she had another goal in mind.

For her, today was the time for some answers.

She had arrived in this mysterious world exactly two weeks ago, not that time meant much around here – she'd learned that much. She had woken up in a filled classroom to a roll call, signaling the start of a normal school day. There had only been one problem for her – she had no idea what had happened to her or where she even was, and couldn't for the life of her fathom everything that was happening. The whole scenario almost made her wonder if she had amnesia or if she'd simply gone insane.

Either way, she had decided to play along and take the 'silent observation' approach. Just like that, two weeks had gone by without anything particularly strange happening. Or, maybe that was exactly what was strange about this place.

The first thing she noticed was that her sudden presence didn't seem to bother anyone but herself as she found herself mysteriously enlisted as one of the students of the school. Everyone treated her like any other normal student, as if they'd known her all her life, while Yuri couldn't recognize a single face in the school.

Besides that, something else had been nagging Yuri's mind. It was subtle, and it was only a few days ago when Yuri had finally identified the source of this feeling of out-of-place-ness. It was hard to notice at first, but over time it had become more and more apparent: this place was surprisingly lacking in its randomness and _un_predictability.

Each and every student would come to school on time _every day_; scream 'present' like schoolchildren when taking the roll call _every morning_; be inhumanly quiet and jot everything down in their notebooks in _every class_; leave the school grounds and return to their respective dorms right after school _every time_ – well, for those who were not assigned after-school duties or had not engaged in after-school activities anyway.

It had almost gotten to the point where Yuri could accurately predict about 90% of the day before it even started. It was almost as if this world was following a set of highly predictable and systematic patterns. Unpredictability was what made life fun – well, most of the time anyway – and everything here just screamed surreality.

Surreal and lifeless.

An alien world.

And so, after deciding that sitting around idly wouldn't solve anything for her, Yuri had decided to take the active approach. She didn't know exactly what to do, but she knew that in order to unravel the mysteries of this world, she would first have to know this world. And the most direct way to do this was to first take a tour of the whole area.

_Easier said than done._ _This school is mammoth._ Yuri thought. It occupied a multi-hectare area, complete with two school buildings, a teacher's building, a separate library building, two huge dorms, its own soccer field and baseball field, a sports field, a huge cafeteria, a gym and an outdoor garden. Not to mention the mountains that surrounded it. Yuri once wondered if her speculations were true – if this world could really be something programmed to follow a set of patterns – then maybe the mountains were just decoration.

_Pfft. Yeah right_. Yuri thought as she quickly discarded that idea. As appealing as it might sound, the idea was too far-fetched.

Yuri sighed. With any luck, she could cover about a twentieth of the area in one day.

And the worst part was that her attempts had proven to be fruitless so far. As Yuri continued to walk around clueless in search of an answer that might not even be there, she felt like a blind man trying to navigate at sea. In a storm. With a broken raft.

She sighed again as she finally reached the roof. She crossed over a 'No Trespassing' sign and slid the rusted door open, already half-expecting this to be another fruitless attempt. Well, maybe tomorrow she'd have better luck.

But she stopped short in her tracks the moment she stepped out onto the roof, her eyes widening ever so slightly in surprise. There it was. The clue that she had so desperately been searching for. An element of inconsistency that suddenly felt so out of place given Yuri's time in this world. And it was lying right in front of her eyes, comfortable and oblivious.

A purple-haired boy was lying on the roof, topless as he bathed in the slowly setting sun and enjoyed the cool breeze. His school shirt was lying a bit haphazardly beside him. His head was rested comfortably atop his intertwined hands, his legs were crossed, and the look on his face was surprisingly peaceful.

The scene almost painted a kind of harmonious scene, if not for the huge halberd lying beside him, which was also the source of Yuri's awe and surprise. After all, what normal student in their right mind would bring such a dangerous weapon to school? This had to be an element of randomness for sure. Yuri was one step closer to the truth – she knew this for certain.

/ / /

Noda had never felt so at peace with the world before. The air smelled fresh and the breeze felt good. It was strange. He had never had the luxury to experience something like this before. Somehow, he felt lighter, as if he had been freed of all restraints.

He had already forgotten the slight anxiety and massive confusion he'd felt the first day he had arrived in this place. It was only natural, given his surprisingly short-term memory that came with his hyperactivity. It didn't matter, though, because he had already come up with the only plausible explanation for everything that was happening around here.

He was the hero. The main character. The person that the whole world revolved around.

It didn't matter what kind of world this was, or if it was just a figment of his own imagination. He was the hero – it was all that mattered. The world existed solely for him. It was his own, personal paradise.

Sometime during his satisfying speculations, he heard the door to the roof slide open as a trespasser made their way toward him. He smiled without bothering to stand up or even open his eyes. _Time to test out that theory._

'Go get me a canned coffee.'

There was a pause as the trespasser said, obviously confused, 'Huh?' It was the voice of a girl – not that it mattered.

'I said, go get me a can of coffee,' Noda repeated as he made a gesture toward the door, his eyes still closed. 'Vending machine's downstairs.'

There was the sound of receding footsteps. Noda couldn't suppress the grin on his face even if he wanted to. It looked like he was right – sidekicks always did the bidding of the main character without needing to ask why.

But then the footsteps came back in the form of a run-up, and with it an intense pain in the stomach as the girl leaped and kneed him in the gut.

'Quit screwing around!' the girl said with a slight hint of annoyance.

'OW! What the…' He winced as he clutched his stomach in pain. But he reacted quickly, picking up his halberd and directing it toward whichever sidekick dared to defy his orders.

He found himself staring at a magenta-haired girl with emerald-colored eyes. She was dressed in an off-white shirt and a black skirt – the standard uniform for female students here. He noticed that she was more than a head shorter than he was, and was looking back at him not with fear, but with a slight hint of amusement.

'Hmm…' she said as she tapped her chin thoughtfully. 'A psycho… definitely an element of randomness.'

Noda's muscles tensed as he did a swing of his halberd in rage. 'What did you…'

'Say, are you God?' the girl interrupted.

'What?! I'm the main-'

'Hmm…' the girl interrupted again. 'I guess you aren't then. It's practically written all over your face – you're just as clueless as you look. I guess that's good. I wouldn't want this world to be ruled by a psychopath.'

Noda's blood was slowly reaching its boiling point. He couldn't have someone like her ruin his whole afternoon for him. 'Just who do you think you are, sidekick?! Wanna die?!' he bellowed.

'Hmm? Sidekick?' the girl looked back at him calmly. If she was intimidated by his words or actions, she certainly wasn't showing it.

'I'm the main character here. That means everyone else is just a sidekick, including you. And _that_ means you have to do my bidding every time I tell you to.'

The girl sighed. 'I can see you're mentally unstable, but I didn't expect you to be _this_ mad... This could be troublesome.'

Just when Noda thought his eyes were going to pop out, a thought suddenly occurred to him. Everything seemed to clear as he was struck by the sudden moment of illumination, the same kind of revelation that led him to believe he was the main character of this world.

His muscles slowly relaxed as he mulled it over. Then his mouth slowly tipped up as he started to laugh in an almost maniacal manner. 'I see. So that's how it is.'

The girl seemed a little creeped out as she took a step backward. 'What now?'

'It makes perfect sense. It would be too boring if I'm the only hero.'

'What are you on about? Are you high?'

Noda jabbed his finger at the girl. 'You're the heroine of this world, aren't you?' His previous frustration was all but gone as excitement slowly set in. 'You're here to a form a team with me, aren't you?'

'With you? I wouldn't dream of it.'

Noda threw his head to the side with a snort. 'Stubborn and aggressive. Typical personalities for a heroine. There are no two ways about it.'

The girl sighed again. 'You're really hopeless, aren't you? And I thought you were going to give me the answers I've been searching for. I sure got my hopes up for nothing.'

She turned to leave without another look at the psychopath, but she was forced to stop again when she reached the exit. Someone was standing in the doorway, and it didn't seem he was here by sheer accident.


	3. 2 Unknown assassin

Chapter 2 – Unknown assassin

**[School Building A: Roof]**

Yuri looked at the neatly dressed, blue-haired boy with an arched eyebrow. For a moment, she contemplated asking him politely to move aside, but she already knew it wouldn't work. The way he was leaning against the doorway intentionally blocking the exit told her that much. He was obviously here for a purpose, and somehow she knew it had something to do with her. This meeting on the roof couldn't be a coincidence.

'Who are you?' Yuri asked.

'It is common courtesy to give your own name before asking someone else's,' the boy said as he pushed up the bridge of his glasses. His voice was deep and calm, an obvious contrast to the purple-haired psychopath's hot-headedness.

Yuri cocked her head in a slightly curious manner. _First you force me to stay out here and now you're pulling this kind of attitude? Man, talk about first impressions…_ 'Fine, I'll play along. My name is Yuri Nakamura. Now, what's yours?'

The boy smiled and gave a slight bow of courtesy. 'Thank you for telling me, but I actually already knew that.'

Yuri gritted her teeth. This guy was slowly getting on her nerves.

The boy held out a hand in an explanative gesture. 'My name is Takamatsu, and I wish to join you.'

'Join what? What are you talking about?'

The purple-haired boy took a step forward and thrust his halberd in Takamatsu's direction. 'Buzz off, jerk. This is no place for sidekicks.'

Takamatsu smiled and continued, ignoring the psycho, 'I wish to join you on your quest. I take it this is why you are here.'

Yuri's brow arched even higher, and Takamatsu went on, 'You see, I have my own questions about this strange place. I followed you all the way here, and I overheard everything.'

_Great._ _A psychopath and a stalker. This day just keeps getting better. _Yuri sighed inwardly before a thought suddenly struck her. She regarded the boy carefully as his name finally started to ring a bell. 'Wait… aren't you from the same homeroom class as me?'

'Indeed. Your powers of observation are formidable.'

'Then you're a normal student. What the hell are you doing here?' Yuri vaguely remembered this well-behaved boy from class. The only way he differed from other model students was his status as the class captain.

'I see you haven't figured it out yet. I'm a human, just like you. I've been here for six months, and there are a lot of things about this place that I don't understand-'

'Six months and no progress?' Yuri cut him off. 'Man, are you inept.'

'Recruit me and I'll show you what I can do. Give me an order.'

Yuri cocked her head. 'For starters, how about you drop the whole "model student" façade? Break a few windows. It's healthy for you. In any case, I have no interest in forming any kind of team.'

Behind her, the purple-haired boy's lips twisted into a sneer. 'Yeah, you tell him, Yurippe. Lowly sidekicks are not qualified to even talk to us.'

Yuri turned with a glare. 'The name's Yuri.'

He scoffed. 'I'm the main character here. _I_ decide what name others go by. Yurippe.'

_Smack!_

A backward kick sent the boy crashing to the floor.

'Call me that again, and you're going to get more than a shoeprint on your face,' Yuri said with a dark face before turning to Takamatsu again. 'Go team up with the psycho. I bet you two will form a great team.'

'No, we won't!' the two shouted almost unanimously.

Yuri shook her head and sighed.

'Comparing me with this idiot is a direct insult to my intelligence!' the purple-haired boy shouted.

'That's funny. I don't remember being the one who gets zeros in every subject,' Takamatsu countered in his usual calm manner.

'How did… why you…!'

Yuri sighed again. 'It's getting really late. I'm out of here. You two continue to enjoy your argument when I'm gone, okay?' She pushed Takamatsu aside, ignoring the latter's protests as she slowly made her way back down the stairs.

She stretched, enjoying the momentary peace as the continuing argument between the stalker and the psychopath became more and more distant. This little encounter had worn her out, to say the least, but she did learn one thing – she was not the only human here. There were others just like her. That discovery should count for something, shouldn't it? Maybe this little tour was not as fruitless as she had thought after all.

_Bang!_ The sound of a gunshot disrupted her train of thought, pulling her out of her silent reverie. She turned abruptly – the sound came from the roof.

_What are those idiots up to now? _Yuri thought as she rushed back up.

Her eyes widened as she stepped out onto the roof for the second time today. Her hands tightened on the door handle as she sucked in a breath of disbelief.

'What the…' The words escaped her lips in the form of a whisper, as she was greeted with the scene in front of her. Takamatsu's eyes were wide with shock, his hands trembling as he clutched his chest. His knees gave way as he collapsed, the blood gushing out of his body soaking into his uniform and onto the white-tiled floor.

Yuri almost forgot how to breathe as her eyes directed themselves at the most likely culprit. But the purple-haired boy seemed just as shocked, his hot-headedness temporarily struck silent as he seemed to lose the ability to speak.

_Bang!_ Another shot rang out. Yuri's body jerked as she felt a warm sensation pouring out of her own chest. It took only a moment before the thought registered in her mind. _I'm shot._

It was only moments later when pain and darkness overpowered her and she dropped unconscious to the floor.


End file.
